Surviving the Cook Islands, Episode 7: Out of the Loop

Parvati heads out for Raro and breaks a box. Ozzy goes back out for Aitu and realizes Candice couldn’t find the key ‘cus she didn’t break the box all the way and it’s still in there. But he thought he was looking in the water, so he didn’t bring a club! So he gets on the platform and busts the box with his fist!

Ozzy comes back with the third key and Parvati brings back Raro’s second. Yul and Adam get to the platform at roughly the same time, but Adam finds his key before Yul. Raro is gaining some ground, but they’re still almost a full key behind.

Parvati goes back out and gets Raro’s fourth key. Candice gets Aitu’s fifth pretty easily. Adam goes back for Raro while Ozzy does likewise for Aitu. Adam has the fifth key and Parvati heads out again. Ozzy brings back key number six, so Jonathan and Becky get to work.

Parvati breaks the box but the key doesn’t fall. At least she realizes it, rather than swimming around for a while first. On her second leap, she gets the sixth key. Becky and Jonathan have a bit of trouble with the puzzle, but a light bulb goes on for Becky and she quickly realizes where the pieces go. Aitu wins!

Nate is sent back to Raro, where he receives a welcoming hug. Aitu then sends Adam to Exile Island. I was thinking they should send Nate, so he doesn’t have time to pass along any secrets.

Aitu returns to camp and enjoy their peanut butter. Apparently it’s laced with alcohol, because they’re all acting drunk! Candice says she’s in love with all of them (good thing Billy didn’t hear that) and actually kisses Jessica! Jessica tells us she hopes they continue to grow as a tribe and work some things out – you never know, things change constantly in the game.

At Raro, the mood is not quite as happy. Nate consoles Rebecca, saying at least she stepped to the plate. Is that a shot at Brad? Sure sounded like one. Rebecca says her body is just done, she couldn’t even complete a swim. She blames herself.

Nate is frustrated because he couldn’t compete and they really could have used him. Brad again defends his choice to be the puzzle-maker. Nate says they needed his swimming, but Brad says they keep choking at the end and he’s good at puzzles. Nobody seems to be buying it. Nate straight-out says he’s pissed off and doesn’t know what the problem was – Brad was cold, didn’t want to get wet, or is a “Nancy-boy.” Um. Wow, that’s rude.

Jenny and Parvati talk in the same vein, with Jenny getting really bitchy about it. Then again, Brad was the only person who sided with Cristina, so I’m sure that has something to do with it. Parvati says she’s so angry she wants to punch Brad in the mouth. Yikes.

Over at Exile Island, Adam says he’s starting to doubt his tribe. “Challenge after challenge, they just don’t come through. It’s hard to soar like an eagle when you’re surrounded by turkeys.” Hmmm. I wonder how good a swimmer Cristina is compared to Rebecca. Just thinking out loud.

A storm moves in and Adam tries to hunker down in a rickety shelter made up of pieces of the faux shipwreck. Adam complains about the rain and wind, but the guy I feel bad for is the cameraman, who has to stay out in the storm and film Adam!

The next day, Ozzy comes walking into camp carrying a bird he caught. There is some debate as to whether or not they should eat it. The vote goes against the bird and Yul takes it out to make it into a meal.

Ozzy goes out to climb some coconut trees as Candice describes him as part man, part fish, part monkey. She’s in awe of his abilities to bring them food, and even sighs heavily as she’s talking about how great he is. Yul seems to agree as he also tells us how great Ozzy is – but at the same time, they feel they should get rid of him while they can.

Ozzy, Jessica, and Candice settle in to some hammocks and discuss the future. Candice tries to avoid answering questions about what the plan is. Jessica asks if she really trusts Jonathan. Ozzy says the three of them could make a strong alliance if they bring somebody else in. He points out that if he gets voted out, they’re going to be short on food. Food will start to become an issue. Candice appears to be thinking about this, but who really knows?

The tribes show up at the immunity challenge and are joined by Adam. Probst notes that it’s safe to say Adam had the worst night ever on Exile Island. Adam says the storm was tough and he was in pain.

Probst explains the challenge. Each tribe races to arrange a series of logs from shortest to tallest. This makes a staircase to the top of a tower. Then the tribe has to go onto the tower and three tribe members head down a zipline into the water to retrieve a bag of puzzle pieces. The three remaining tribe members use the pieces to solve a puzzle. I wonder which part of the challenge Brad will do! Aitu sits out Jonathan.

And they’re off! People run to the logs to drag or carry them to the holes. Ozzy and Yul start laying them down so they can figure out which log goes where. But on Raro the guys debate which log is longest.

Aitu has their staircase and all six head up. Yul is the first on the zipline. Into the water he goes while Raro still works on their staircase. They have it finished but Yul is already heading back to shore with a bag.

Brad is the first one down the zipline for Raro. Imagine that. He grabs a bag and heads back as Yul reaches shore and Candice hits the water. Brad makes it back and Parvati zips down.

Candice is back and Ozzy flies down. Parvati is slow in returning to shore as Probst notes that Raro is losing ground on the swimming leg… “again.” Ozzy makes up even more time, but that’s a given.